4&20 blackbirds

A blogger in the news

This is just FYI but I’m curious to see other bloggers’ opinions on this story from the Montana Associated Press.

Montana Cowgirl is receiving some attention on a post written about the Van Dyk/Brown Montana Senate race taking place in Billings. Ms. Cowgirl is taking heat from the right and the left for portraying Roy Brown in less than flattering light. The comments after her post are a good read and should elicit some introspection.

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Amateurs. Looks like a mess in Helena. When comments like jamee’s are essentially dismissed it ruins the blogs credibility. And it erodes any moral high ground it may have acquired in the tea party homophobic scandal.

I got huffy when a friend said something to me about a racist joke I’d repeated. I was raised in a racist part of the country by racist family and I didn’t see the offense in a ‘harmless joke’.
It took a few years for it to sink in. Many more years to feeling grateful now that my friend cared enough to take a risk — to help me learn, to see something I hadn’t been aware of before.
It’s good for us to talk about these things. We all have things we can learn.

What I think is that I’ve lost a great deal of patience here. I’ve been tracking a website for over a week now called “Montanafesto”. It claims to be, and I quote: “non-partisan montana political commentary”, authored by anonymous sources.

Bull and Shit. It is strictly partisan, and aimed against the Governor and Kendall van Dyk. It is classic astroturf. And it will be ignored because IOKIYAAR. But Gouras, having never established the claims he makes … well let’s all believe that bit of journalistic excellence.

We all make mistakes, and this one isn’t helping her candidate. MC ought, imo, to take down the post, apologize for a joke that’ on reflection, is in bad taste, and stop being the story.

I was recently in a country that has genuine censorship: books, movies, websites. One fellow explained to me, though, that he uses something called hidemyass.com which masks his IP address when doing things his government does not like. I’m not tech savvy enough to know if this might be useful for people sitting in parking lots by state buildings — or whatever — nor can I recommend this service (not having used it myself). Something to think about though.

I have written a couple of posts over at A road less traveled about Cowgirls journey into gender baiting and homophobia. I found her post disgusting and the comments were worse. That post brought out the worst of the worst of the left leaning people in Montana. Of particular note should be Larry the Idiot Rangers relating how he and friends tormented some kid in school “because he was nerdy”.

The saddest part of this all is that Cowgirl maintains she did nothing wrong and “we should all get over it”. She gives lots of example of right leaning homophobia as if it is suppose to make us overlook her homophobia and gender baiting.

Personally, I really hope someone does out her. If she is a government employee using government resources to support dem candidates (and astroturf republican candidates), she should be called on it. Period.

I took down the link to her site from mine when she first posted the gender baiting post. I don’t read her anymore either. I find her site icky and I have no expectation of seeing anything remotely approaching accurate, helpful information on politics (unless I am looking for how politics in Montana has gone down the toilet).

Past posts by the blogger have even released on the Internet potentially incriminating Department of Labor enforcement documents sent to one of Schweitzer’s political critics – even before one of those letters was received by the businessman being investigated. The Labor Department said those documents were never released to a member of the news media or public.

someone has special access and is using it, and it’s either the blogger in question or some politico using the blog. either way it stinks.

as for the post, it’s tasteless, and “she” should be called out for it. Jamee makes some good points. and falling back on the “it’s just a joke” excuse is lame.

I think the AP article goes much further than your points above. It’s coming from a state computer system, that operates inside the capitol. Many of “Montana Cowgirl” posts are aimed at people who have dared to challenge Governor Schweitzer. All are blatantly partisan, and some are egregious, like the gay bashing, or some of the outright falsehoods I’ve read, particularly in MC’s LitW posts.

Now, I think anonymous speech is free speech; the examples in history have been many and famous. Cato Institute has had some interesting stuff about it lately. But what is done by MC and what is done by jhwygirl is like night and day.

Nobody can believe the “out in the parking lot” scenario, particularly considering the use of inside information not available to public or press. The possibility of state employees performing anonymous, partisan blogging inside the capitol in an obvious campaign against those with whom the Governor disagrees should be cause for investigation by legislative audit or other independent investigator.

I agree with Moorcat on everything but the “her” part. Lizard19’s got it exactly right, both with the citation of inside information and with the quotation marks.

The argument that it is someone close to the Capital Building or in the parking lot is questionable anyway. Isn’t the wireless access keyed? If not it is a serious breach in both the security of the State’s wireless network as well as something that should be immediately addressed by the State’s Information Technology department.

In short, I don’t buy it either. The simple truth is that Cowgirl got a big head when people fauned over her earlier posts and got progressively more agressive and strident with her attacks on everyone. She went too far and people called her on it. It is only a matter of time before someone outs this individual and I really hope that person gets fired and ostrisized. The bottom line, if you feel committed enough to post this slime and astroturf, at least be honest enough to post it in your own name.

One unintended consequence of the Cowgirl’s BS is that anonmous posting and comments will be questioned more in the future. I am seriously leaning toward not allowing anonmous comments on my blog because of it. I think LITW is much better for the absense of Cowgirl and her filth.

“The Department of Administration, provided with detail on the IP address of some posts, was able to identify that the blogger had been accessing — all day long at times — the state wireless guest system through a hookup in the Office of Public Instruction using an Apple Macintosh laptop.

The agency spokeswoman at the time, Jessica Rhoades, said neither she nor anyone else at the agency was doing it. Rhoades, who recently went to work for the governor’s office…”

What does “through a hookup in the office” mean? Could someone comment on how easy it is to know MC used an “apple mac laptop” ?

Were I Brown, I would fine a Libel change against Cowgirl. There is plenty of precident for such an action and it would cause two things to happen almost immediately –

1) an investigation would be launched into who Cowgirl really is

and

2) if taxpayer resources were being used in the production, maintenence or posting to Cowgirl’s site.

Even if the case never came to trial, if it proved that Cowgirl was an administration atroturfer, the current administration would be in a great deal of trouble. If it proved that Cowgirl was a State Employee using State resources, it would result in her being fired and discredited.

This would be a “win” situation on Brown’s part regardless of whether he actually won the libel suit.

Wulfgar, if this whole scenario involved republicans, I bet you would be rabid about it. if Cowgirl is a tool of the governor’s office, I think that information is worth ferreting out, even if it takes an investigation.

And I’ll bet your wrong, lizard. You know why? Because I’ve been there, done that. I’m certain you’ve heard of Bowen Greenwood? Would it surprise you to know that he used to be an anonymous blogger while consulting for the state Republican party? Both Matt Singer and I knew his identity before he outed himself, and isn’t it strange that neither of us got the AP involved. And ask me about the dirty lightbulb boys sometime.

You lose your bet.

if Cowgirl is a tool of the governor’s office, I think that information is worth ferreting out, even if it takes an investigation.

What the story does not explain well is that anyone can access that wireless as a guest. Often when I’m in Helena on business, I’ll park my car out near the building to check email, etc… People are misunderstanding the technological element and potentially turning the issue it something it isn’t.

I freely admit, I was not aware that the taxpayer funded State Wireless system was open to anyone. That is an issue that I have a great deal of grief with and I will be taking that up with my representatives.

The entire network is not unsecured. They have a separate “Guest Network” for guests, such as legislators and lobbyists to use. Logging into it require you open a browser, select a user type, provide a name, and agree to their privacy rules (which I’m sure no one reads).

Man, the AP used the weakest of news hooks for this piece. The real bit here — and I’m glad that everyone’s talking about it for the most part — is that MC appears to be a plant from Governor Brian’s office. We can go back and forth about her dumb joke, and we can call her defense lame, but it is ultimately a joke.

It’s a lazy (vapid/stupid/derp!) joke, but a joke nonetheless.

The thing that should sting for MC is that her credibility is kind of shot. Yes, she may get some bits here and there that are newsy, but the “HOW” is now the focus. Did she get it through real work and effort, or just because she’s a plant from the Gov’s office? At her site she’s claiming to just be the recipient of tips from people. Maybe that’s true. I don’t know.

Geez, you guys. When a small-time blog gets mentioned in a national news story, the natural result is a flood of traffic, which her site likely isn’t equipped to handle. That white screen you saw is a failed response from a flooded server.

I know you’re pissed at her, but don’t jump to ridiculous conclusions.

Basically, made his reputation writing excellent commentary on tech issues, and would link people to a wide variety of sites, many small time. And when his readership climbed in the hundreds of thousands, and each reader hitting a link, well, all those site suffered major downtime.

I has become a badge of honor to get “fireballed,” particularly by Gruber. But the phenomenon and term is exploding. I’d expect to see it added to some dictionaries in the future.

The claim that MtCowgirl is a plant from Schweitzer’s office seems quite a stretch to me. I remember her writing once that she thought Schweitzer was an inveterate liar, or words to this effect.

She has used bad taste several times. So what? Since when did everyone get so hung up on decorum?

Featuring a snap shot of Roy Brown looking especially un-macho, in light of his party’s strident anti-gay position, is in poor taste but not wholly inappropriate in a site that is supposed to contain satirical material.

Satire, if it’s any good, goes right up to the edges of bad taste. Sometimes it goes a bit too far. When it does, we need to note that this has happened and move on.

It’s a minor misdemeanor not a felony. A lot of the rage it has generated strikes me as way over the top.

I see my last post, in which I defend MtCowgirl’s blog, ended abruptly. I’d started an idea about gays being offended but sent the message before completing it.

I was going to say that while gays might be offended by the Roy Brown posting, most gays I know probably wouldn’t be. I’m not gay myself but I am the father of a wonderful gay daughter. I haven’t spoken to her about the post in question, but I know she and her gay friends are fond of irrreverent, sometimes way over-the-top humor. I seriously doubt that she would be offended.

Turner, this isn’t about that post anymore, and neither was the Gouras article. He just used Jamee Greer and GBLT concerns as a shallow and expendable pretext to write an article more appropriately titled “WHO IS MONTANA COWGIRL?” Personally, I be interested to find out what Jamee thinks of that.

I’ve got to agree with Wulfgar! here that the goal of the Gouras article was to try an out CG. And Jamee was just a convenient way to get there. Not that Jamee wasn’t justified in raising the issue about CG’s article the way he did–it is his job afterall to advocate LGBT issues.

But judging by the national reach of the story, it sure isn’t because a blogger had a picture of a politician with a “man-purse” in a diary. I’ve done worse in the past, and gotten scathed (and learned how to apologize properly in an online forum), and didn’t as much as get a peep from anywhere but the blog I flogged up on.

So it obviously it is everything else that is going on in CG’s blog that is raising the hackles and attention. WHich means that as “man-purse-gate” blows over, we’re going to see a lot more push to out CG.

I’ve had a lot of correspondence with Cowgirl over the past few months, and I think she gets it- she’s expressed a willingness to be educated AND expressed remorse at her regrettable comment.
She’s not doing her job the way I would do it, but it takes all kinds- and I believe it’s my job to try first to educate rather than picking up the “Offended” stick and responding in outrage.
There are a lot of us out there, great people who are passionate about the same issues- activists, bloggers, reporters, letter writers, commenters, etc. We won’t always agree, but we all deserve to be heard and, conversely, to try and respectfully hear each other. thant means taking responsibility for our words and actively working to educate each other about the power of some of those words.
It’s not a perfect system, but we can make it better by calmly pointing out rather than screaming in outrage- unless of course, the calm pointing is continually ignored….

Many have tried to “calmly point out” the problems with that post and she has ignored it. I don’t buy her “remorse” in the least and from the looks of the comments she is making about this post the subsequent ferver it has generated, I get the impression that she is wallowing in her “15 minutes of fame”.

She seems like an astroturf plant. She sounds like an astroturf plant. If it quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. The only question remaining is who in the administration is involved.

Turner is exactly right. There seems to be no sense of proportionality regarding the amount of outrate generated over a silly joke. I’m wondering where many of Cowgirl’s critics work, or even if the DO work. For you see, in nearly every job that I’ve ever had, humor was a constant throughout the day. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes silly, more often than not bawdy, and yes, sometimes racial and offensive. But still, there was humor everywhere. It breaks the monotny and livens the spirit. And both men and women are guilty of humor. And I for one am thankful for it. Even though I’m a died in the wool dem, all my coworkers are not. So, I get the endless, steady stream of Obama jokes. Do I go ballistic when I hear them? No. I shrug them off. I find the ballyhoo about this particular joke to be incomprehensible. I mean, I see no hate in it at all. Therefore, no need for outrage. No one was hung on a fence and left for dead. No one was burned out. No one was beaten up. And in fact, I did not interpret the joke to be about gays. Just a guy who lacks a certain body type. That’s all. Let’s face it. Roy Brown is NOT a Charles Atlas figure. Now, is he to be considered gay for that? Are ALL “metromorphs” (hey, good word) to now be considered gay? I hope not, ’cause I’m not gay. Sorry bout that.

in terms of political effectiveness, this little stunt by cowgirl has been counterproductive. instead of focusing on issues of substance, MC decided to make physical appearance the focus of her political disdain for Roy Brown. obviously this has struck a chord across the political spectrum. some defenders may think this was just a harmless joke. others, who have faced ridicule for how they look, obviously don’t think it’s hilarious satire.

i think it’s fair to say that if MC continues blogging her gossip and satire shctick, she should probably avoid acting all indignant if someone uses gender jokes mocking women. if she can dish it out, she better be prepared to take it.

“man up” is the phrase that comes to mind. you ready to man up cowgirl?

Good grief, Lizzard. I don’t know HOW many jokes I heard about Jon Tester’s prodigious midsection when he was running for the senate. And yet I heard not one remark from anyone lambasting the authors. Nearlly all rightwing sites were guilty. Roy Brown is skinny. Is Cowgirl a Skinnyphobe? Apparently so.

Lizard’s point is valid, Beantown. There are real issues out there and the Cowgirl brouhaha is a molehill.

I was surprised as hell to see the AP story on the front page of our daily. It might be appropriate inside Section B but then there’d be no room for all the obits.

In my post, out of thoughtfulness (or laziness, you be the judge) I posted some links and an appeal for others’ thoughts on the issue. I didn’t offer an opinion.

Here’s my opinion now:

I don’t care where Cowgirl gets her information: the governor, the Democratic Party or the guy at the end of the bar. There’s some good stuff in many of her posts and then there’s some info I take with a grain of salt.

I don’t think she’s stupid enough to post from a state government computer from a state office on state time … at least I hope not.

Her Roy Brown “man purse” comment was poorly thought out and tacky, but not nearly as offensive as the Mallard Fillmore cartoons that appear in our newspaper everyday.

I will continue to visit her site with the knowledge that she supports, and is supported by, Democrats. I will also, occasionally, visit sites that support, and are supported by, Republicans. It cracks me up that the Republicans are outraged by Cowgirl’s connections — like they don’t engage in the same thing.

As one who follows bloggers not so much for there content but to see if there is middle ground for all of in the future, MT cowgirl has made the decision to cross the line that most of you understand to be sacred. That is crossing the line on attacking 1 or both sides. IT would be better for her to add to this thread to let her public image become tarnished.

I’m not getting the governor’s office connection so much as Democratic Party, as she uses her blog to rant about just about every candidate with an R behind the name. I kind of felt duped when Koehler said that MC was really a nome de plume for a group of people, meaning a blog with many contributors using the same name. It would make sense that “she” started up at LITW, as that site has known connections to the state Democratic Party.

But that is a guess. I don’t much care about all of the politics, and the only thing I find off-putting is “her” hypocrisy in criticizing Roy Brown for being less than manly because he does not hunt. All candidates in Montana either hunt or pretend to hunt.

this political season really brings out the best in everyone. too bad lost in all the noise is the reality that our economic/environmental/political crises continue to escalate despite the enormous political edge the democrats have had for two years.

i think this political landscape of constant attack is absolutely toxic and obviously having a detrimental effect on those involved in single-minded all-or-nothing campaigning.

i’m beginning to wonder if new media is playing a retarding role in our interaction with each other, because all over these little stages we appear to be replaying high school style popularity contests.

i’m beginning to wonder if new media is playing a retarding role in our interaction with each other, because all over these little stages we appear to be replaying high school style popularity contests.

pimples, lizard, pimples…

I’ve been watching, developing, and participating in “new media” with the rise of the internet for over 20 years now. What is clear is how fast it evolves. Today there may be ugliness, but people will adapt, technology will continue its relentless change, and 5 years from now we will look back and wonder what all the hoo-haw over FB, twitter, poliblogging, etc. was. Because we’ll all be worried about what new fangled social network goo-gaw will have taken hold, and watching people stumble all over themselves trying to figure out how to make it work in their lives.

Think about how long it took for our culture to assimilate things like railroads, planes, autos, phones, electricity, tv, radio, film, etc. We’ve had major blogging for barely a decade, only really popularized in the last 4-5 years. And it still is a distinct minority of people that pay attention to it. Sure it can drive the narrative (which obviously is a strength of CG).

At times like this I always suggest to people that they get out of the bubble to get some perspective. I don’t think the political landscape has really changed all that much (as it pertains to campaign style and attacks and all). What has changed is that the internet has allowed some of us to pay particularly close attention to it (too much attention in some cases). And it has made it problematic for some politicians and their supporters to “fly under the radar” so to say.

One just needs to look at Rachel Maddow’s campaign this week on how republicans are resorting to using the “Southern Strategy” to lock up the white vote. When Nixon/Buchanan/GOP unleashed the strategy in the 60’s, it went unexposed until much later. Today we can see this in action.

Sometimes the internet becomes an all-too-easy way for us to immerse ourselves in the ugliness of whatever part of the world we find obsessing. But just as easy we could spend our time tending to our gardens and children, and spending our time online looking up recipes and salve recipes…

The problem today being polarization. Back in Nixon’s time we had only the big three news networks that feigned objectivity, but anyone who wanted TV news had three choices of Pepsi.

Now everyone can go to their own slant. Rachel may be exposing, but since only liberals listen to Rachel, the exposition has no impact. Jon Stewart makes a career out of hammering Glenn Beck, but Beck people never listen to Stewart, so it is all in a vacuum.

I don’t really consider Maddow “news.” Sure, sometimes it is, but is really mostly commentary. And as such, is really directed at a small insider audience. People look towards that sort of thing in very specific ways. For instance, I think that a lot of MAddow’s recent political material is all about helping dems find a strategy and a backbone.

Truthfully, I don’t watch any news. I scan the newspaper, read the letters, sort of follow events, but mostly have tuned out. I read my books, check in with bloggers, and that’s about it. By avoiding those who deliver what is called “news,” I somehow stay informed. Can’t really explain it. But it works.

Speaking as the founder and senior editor at Flathead Memo Dot Com, I think Cowgirl is getting a bum rap on this. She’s pithier, more explicit, in her criticism of politicians than many other bloggers, but that’s a style, not a crime. Those who found the “man-purse” caption offensive have exercised their right to disagree, but while I understand that they feel genuinely aggrieved, I do not concur in their judgment that Cowgirl owes them an apology.

Overall, she’s doing a fine job and ought to be commended for publishing things that the mainstream news media find uninteresting or radioactive.

I think principal effect of Matt Gouras’ story will be to increase Cowgirl’s readership.

As Mark points out, part of the problem with the new media is polarization. (Yes, Mark, we see this similarly; try not to think too hard about it.) But, whereas Mark councils minimalization, I suggest battering oneself with a broader view. This very topic is being considered in many different locations, with many different slants. Much can be gleaned from most of them, without having to accept the particular slant of any given presentation. For instance, here’s what we know:

*IF*, and I can’t stress that enough, Cowgirl is blogging on the government dime, then she could well be in violation of the law.

Gouras’ information is woefully incomplete. He has an IP address that simply cannot be proven to have come from “Montana Cowgirl”, the blogger, unless it was provided to him by an admin at LitW. Montana Cowgirl, the emailer or commenter? Certainly. But those don’t appear to violate the law, unless she was using government equipment or a static government departmental IP to access the network.

Cowgirl was using neither a governmental computer or a static IP from the government network. When Gouras verified his “information”, that would have been pointed out to him. The access in question was from the public wireless, (which by the way should be public. We pay for it.)

Aaron Flint, quality ‘journalist’ that he isn’t, has already posted rumors which can implicate and embroil a person who simply can’t be Montana Cowgirl. My opinion, of course, but I consider that a dick move of almost Malkinesque evil.

As should be predictable to any, most of those on the left are poo-pooing this event or screaming for accountability without understanding who should be accountable for what, and the right just wants a good old fashioned witch burning.

Now Lizard, having railed about his desire for accountability up to and including “an investigation” is weary of the fact that we all are being distracted from the big issues. I ask, who’s fault is that? Gouras’? Cowgirl’s? Mine? What, people can’t think about more than one thing in a day?

This is significant. The possibility exists that our state government is engaging in illegal and nefarious practice. The fact exists that the press is withholding the weak evidence they have in favor of a sensationalist story, and protecting someone anonymous while attacking someone anonymous. Regardless, real people are being affected by this, far more than those railing against Obama in an election in which he isn’t running. And what gets lost in this cloud of chaotic assumption is that there was a simple blog disagreement between Cowgirl and supporters of GBLT rights. That really doesn’t seem to matter anymore, now does it?

The real issue should not be the free Internet connection at the Capitol, you can get free wireless at library and many coffee shops. The fact that this person has inside information points to a security breach or that this person has Capitol connections. The fact the blogger is online all day smacks of an employee bringing their computer with them, if it is someone who works for taxpayer dollars, they should be in violation of theft of services. I should not pay someone I have hired to do a job to use the on the job time in a manner that is outside of the job description. The govenor must investigate and take struck measures if this is a paid staffer.

[…] only one upset with Montana Cowgirl’s posts aimed at questioning Brown’s manhood. Both Pete Talbot at 4 & 20 Blackbirds and Dave Budge over at Electric City Weblog have posts up about this issue being reported in the […]